What personal attributes should a candidate possess to be in the telecom sector?

Apart from functional knowledge which can vary dramatically from person to person, there are three things that are a must have for young professionals – appetite to learn, emotional intelligence and the spirit of an entrepreneur. These traits are valuable across industry segments and aren’t necessarily desirous of a telecom professional.

Most young mangers feel that they are on top of their game, a thought which comes in the way of their professional growth. It is hard to tangibilize the value of staying invested in this developing process especially in the early stages of your career but slowly it starts to reflect in many ways around you.

Emotional intelligence has been fairly undermined till the recent past but it’s gaining fair ground. Employees who can manage their emotions & demonstrate self-discipline in today’s challenging business environment can clearly be on the fast track to success. (Also read: A good employee always takes ownership). A person’s ability to build & maintain emotional deposits with co-workers, superiors, partners, customers etc are traits valued highly by companies.

What are the top three challenges for most organisations to become a great workplace?

Nothing is more valuable than the employees of the company. For lot of companies, these words remain part of their rhetoric. But some invest heavily in developing and nurturing these assets. My list of top three challenges for organisations hover around this dimension – empower, develop and recognise. (Also read: Retaining talented people is a major challenge)

Companies which empower their employees truly leverage the potential each individual brings to the table. Lot of companies feel they give their employees autonomy to take decisions but fail to execute that thought to its true meaning. Most managers end up delegating work & feel that they have empowered their reports. But that is just one part of the employee empowerment strategy. Companies fail to share the broader vision, establish trust, map skill sets, evaluate employee desire, build support systems, provide feedback and reward champions.

Employee development is a rewarding process for a company especially in the mid to long term scenario. However, mostly it is viewed as an option and an expense. Most programs are not calibrated to address the need gap within the organization and provide low visibility into the ROI from this activity. On-boarding new employees quickly, successor planning, honing existing talent to do new & more things, enhancing company image, reducing employee turnover, increasing the level of innovation & technology adoption, bringing efficiencies in process, motivating employees are a few examples on why to build this pillar within the organisation.

Employee recognition is the best way to communicate internally what outcomes the company values most. The challenges lie in articulating well engineered programmes, making them visible and transparent to keep the employees engaged.

What are the three key traits, according to you, to be a good manager?

As professionals grow, they move from ‘executives’ to ‘managers’ and their roles become complex. They are no longer responsible for their own delivery but also for their teams. Three traits that are intrinsic to the role are – Leaders, Enablers and Effective Communicators.(Also read: Good managers are clear about their purpose & values)

To lead the team from the front a manager must come across confident, trustworthy, focused, committed, inspiring, fair, imaginative among many other things. Some managers are born leaders and some develop the skills over time. It is a must for managers to build & secure these skills to establish a healthy progressive relationship with the team.

Managers are essentially enablers. Providing a vision-based framework, providing key ingredients necessary to reach team goals, mentoring, coaching and nurturing the team members to generate overall unity in effort become the key focus for a good manager.

Effective communication is almost an essential prerequisite to becoming an effective manager. This trait is critical to increase personal influence and persuasiveness within the team and the company.

How do you view overall growth in the telecom sector in the present Indian economy?

Indian telecom sector is the world’s fastest growing sector. From an uber level, it clearly is the bed rock for the next level of economic growth in India as its impact will cut across industry segments and will be far more reaching and significant.

Telecom industry will play the pivotal role of an accelerator both at an enterprise level and for the end consumer. The ability to communicate, collaborate and co-create will ride on the health of this sector.

There has been a lot of progressive movement in this sector. With approx. 900 million telephone subscribers and a tele-density of 72% there is still huge growth potential in this sector. But significant investments need to be made to address the challenge of bringing the rural areas into the fold and at the same time take core industries like education, healthcare, banking etc to these areas via the telecom backbone.

On one hand emerging technologies will deliver easier solutions and opportunities for users to consume & engage with content, on another, they will present explosive opportunities for trade & m-commerce. Introduction of next generation networks will play a critical role in increasing this footprint.

What has been your success mantra in life?

I have had the opportunity to work across various industry sectors, each providing a distinctly different experience from the other. It is hard to attribute success to one particular factor but the ‘north star’ that has continued to help me in my career has been the ability to unlearn and then learn again.

To stay relevant in the current context, it is imperative to keep an eye on what is changing in your ecosystem, imbibe that information and make in-flight changes as you push forward. Learning is a continuous process and a 360 degree view helps.